boxes. The vice-king, fearing the crowd as much as the fire for his
wife, took her out through a little door that had been cut in the
platform in order to serve refreshments to their Majesties. No one had
thought of this opening before Prince Eugene, and only a few persons went
out with him. Her Majesty the Queen of Westphalia did not think herself
safe, even when she had reached the terrace, and in her fright rushed
into the rue Taitbout, where she was found by a passer-by.

The Emperor accompanied the Empress as far as the entrance of the Champs-
Elysees, where he left her to return to the fire, and did not re-enter
Saint-Cloud until four o'clock in the morning. From the time of the
arrival of the Empress we were in a state of terrible apprehension, and
every one in the chateau was a prey to the greatest anxiety in regard to
the Emperor. At last he arrived unharmed, but very tired, his clothing
all in disorder, and his face blackened with smoke, his shoes and
stockings scorched and burned by the fire. He went directly to the
chamber of the Empress to assure himself if she had recovered from the
fright she had experienced; and then returned to his room, and throwing
his hat on the bed, dropped on a sofa, exclaiming, "Mon Dieu! What a
fete!" I remarked that the Emperor's hands were all blackened, and he
had lost his gloves at the fire. He was much dejected, and while I was
undressing him, asked if I had attended the prince's fete, and when I
replied in the negative, deigned to give me some details of this
deplorable event. The Emperor spoke with an emotion which I saw him
manifest only two or three times in his life, and which he never showed
in regard to his own misfortunes. "The fire," said his Majesty, "has to-
night devoured a heroic woman. The sister-in-law of the Prince of
Schwartzenberg, hearing from the burning hall cries which she thought
were uttered by her eldest daughter, threw herself into the midst of the
flames, and the floor, already nearly burned through, broke under her